[Folex]

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with using a CnC machine to cut plastic, more precisely cutting plastic to create baffles ?

 

[wakibaki]

Yeah, I have made lots of parts from sheet perspex (acrylic). I haven't made any baffles tho'. It's an easy material to machine.

 

[Pooger]

I own a prototype company. We get "plastic" cnc machined all the time. What type of plastic are you interested in? If this is for a speaker baffle, you probably don't need it cnc machined, unless there are compound curves as part of the design. A denser material, like corian, is better than most common plastics for use as a baffle. It is machinable also.

 

[Folex]

I own a prototype company. We get "plastic" cnc machined all the time. What type of plastic are you interested in? If this is for a speaker baffle, you probably don't need it cnc machined, unless there are compound curves as part of the design. A denser material, like corian, is better than most common plastics for use as a baffle. It is machinable also.

 
I personally like polycarbonate. Very durable and has a good flex to help with bass. 

 

[Pooger]

PC is a bit trickier to machine--it's very tough compared to most other plastics. It does machine though, and that same toughness would make it good for parts as delicate as a headphone baffle. (I automatically thought of full sized baffles, since I have machined many of those over the years. I do wonder if composites like fountainhead (that are probably my favorite loudspeaker baffle material) would work as well in the macro world of headphone parts. Might be worth a try.

As I inferred from my first answer, our in house mill is not Cnc, so we send out a good bit of work. We've yet to request PC for parts, typically these have been forms that we could just machine in house.

 

[Folex]

Since posting the cnc question I'm started to debate if I want to get it done 3d and printed on a 3d printer. This is the core design I'm looking for. Then from here I'd tweak the design.
 
Angled and offset. I'd ideally want to put AT 2k drivers in that. And then put them in my beyer 990's
 

 

[Pooger]

There are several 3d printer technologies. Since this is an internal part, I'd opt for strength over surface quality. SLS and FDM processes typically are more durable (very nylon like in strength) than SLA or Objet resin builds. I have no experience with the powder deposit style technologies. In any case, you'd need that same sort of 3d file to get the part machined also. The printed part will cost less, and again, since surface quality is no an issue here, I think will work just as well as CNC.

 

[Folex]

There are several 3d printer technologies. Since this is an internal part, I'd opt for strength over surface quality. SLS and FDM processes typically are more durable (very nylon like in strength) than SLA or Objet resin builds. I have no experience with the powder deposit style technologies. In any case, you'd need that same sort of 3d file to get the part machined also. The printed part will cost less, and again, since surface quality is no an issue here, I think will work just as well as CNC.

 
I am decent at 3d rendering when exact dimensions aren't needed. I plan to buy a single T1 baffle and send it off to a professional 3d artist and have them make me up a 3d file. From there I have the skills to make all the adjustments needed.

 

[Pooger]

Make sure that who you send it to understands that 3d “animation” files and 3d “surface” files are two totally different things. Unfortunately, the programs that output lovely 3d renderings for use in animation and illustration can’t be translated into the formats that machine shops and rapid prototypers need. The standard file formats are STP, STL, and IGS.